Discover How Your Customers’ Love Language Evolves

My wife and I recently took the 5 Love Languages assessment to determine the health of our marriage. This assessment is based on the 5 Love Languages book by Dr. Gary Chapman. I didn’t have any high expectations about the assessment because I assumed I knew everything about my wife. After all, I have been married to her for almost two decades.

Boy, was I wrong!

It was such an eye-opener when the results of the assessment revealed my wife’s love languages – the things that mattered to her some twenty years ago, do not matter to her anymore. Her needs have completely changed over time, and so have mine. 

This simple assessment revealed the importance of fine-tuning our relationship periodically to ensure that we have a good understanding of what our needs are, and how we can best meet them. 

“What has this got to do with customers?” one might ask. And the answer is everything!

Just as our individual needs change when we go through life, the needs of our customers change too. The problem is that organizations don’t bother to find out what their customers’ love languages are, let alone learn to speak them. They mistakenly assume that what got them here today, will take them into the future.

But if history has taught us anything, there is a reason why organizations like Kodak, Blockbuster, Nokia, BlackBerry, and Polaroid are no longer here. The sad part of this is that many of them were leaders in their industries.

Consider:

• Blockbuster, for example, was the leading household name in the movie rental market back in the day, and believed their physical stores were enough to keep them in business…until they were forced out by online movie rental companies.
• BlackBerry depended on their arched keyboard devices…until they also were forced out by the entrants of smartphones.

These companies were either oblivious to the fact that the love languages of their customers were changing over time, or they just didn’t care. There are several strategies organizations can employ to better understand the needs of their customers:

Conduct market research

Market research involves gathering and analyzing information about customers, competitors, and the market. This can be done through surveys, focus groups, or analysis of existing data.

Develop customer personas

A customer persona is a fictional character that represents a specific customer segment. Developing customer personas helps organizations better understand their customers' needs, preferences, and behavior.

Create customer feedback loops

Organizations can collect feedback from their customers through surveys, social media, or customer service interactions. Analyzing this feedback can help organizations identify areas for improvement and better understand their customers' needs.

Monitor social media

Social media platforms can provide valuable insights into customers' needs, preferences, and behavior. Organizations can monitor social media to identify trends, gather feedback, and engage with customers.

Analyze customer data

Organizations can use data analytics to analyze customer data, such as purchase history and website behavior. This can help organizations identify patterns and trends in customer behavior and make data-driven decisions.

Provide excellent customer service

Organizations can gather insights into customers' needs by providing excellent customer service. Customer service interactions can provide valuable feedback and help organizations better understand their customers' needs and preferences.

The lesson from our simple love language assessment was an eye-opener to the fact that the decisions we made yesterday have brought us where we are today. The decisions we make or don’t make today will determine where we end up tomorrow. The same is true of organizations. We cannot be oblivious to our customer needs and expect them to continue being loyal to us in the long term. The dynamic business environment in which we operate calls for organizations to better understand the changing needs of customers, so we can better speak their love language.